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Where romance never ends and happiness abounds

Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

It will take a Christmas miracle for two very different souls to find each other in this perfectly festive fairy tale of New York!

Hopeless romantic Eva Jordan loves everything about Christmas. She might be spending the holidays alone this year, but when she’s given an opportunity to house-sit a spectacular penthouse on Fifth Avenue, she leaps at the chance. What better place to celebrate than in snow-kissed Manhattan? What she didn’t expect was to find the penthouse still occupied by its gorgeous—and mysterious—owner.

Bestselling crime writer Lucas Blade is having the nightmare before Christmas. With a deadline and the anniversary of his wife’s death looming, he’s isolated himself in his penthouse with only his grief for company. He wants no interruptions, no decorations and he certainly doesn’t appreciate being distracted by his beautiful, bubbly new housekeeper. But when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva snowbound in his apartment, Lucas starts to open up to the magic she brings…This Christmas, is Lucas finally ready to trust that happily-ever-afters do exist?

Its September so its time to get out the Halloween and Christmas decorations! And that includes all our holiday reads too! I really enjoy Sarah Morgan’s work so to see her have a Christmas romance coming out excited me a lot.

I really admired how Sarah Morgan set this book up. Both Eva and Lucas are dealing with loss, but the way its woven into their stories was done in just a really classy way. I know that sounds somewhat cheesy or odd, but let me explain further.

Our story starts with Eva getting ready to decorate Lucas’ apartment for Christmas. The company she works for, and is partners in, is basically a party planning company, but they also assist with smaller projects as well. Lucas has lied to his family and claimed to be writing in Vermont, but he’s not. He’s just hiding in his 5th Avenue penthouse. So you can imagine the first meeting for these two is quite a shock, considering that neither one knows the other should be there.

Eva’s characters is one that I truly felt like we should all strive to be. As I was reading, I remember thinking, “I wish the world was full of more people like Eva”. She was such an optimist, and even in her own sadness over losing her Gran, she saw the good in others. She believed in love, but that doesn’t mean she was a pushover either. But she was kind to others, saw the good in people, and truly enjoyed seeing people happy.

Lucas, on the other hand, is sort of wallowing in his misery. He’s been very successful at writing, but is presently trying to write but is having writer’s block. Its also the anniversary of his wife’s death. So he is not pleased to see Eva decorating his apartment and hanging around, but she is determined to finish the job that his grandmother hired her to do. But as Lucas talks to her, he starts to find his inspiration again. As the two continue to eat dinner together, he becomes more and more inspired in regards to his writing.

These two don’t have some sort of instalove, or even instant chemistry. Which I actually appreciated. Yet, as they spend more time together and really see each other, then the chemistry starts to really come alive. I want to clarify; they initially are able to see the other as attractive but its not like they see each other and the world stops or anything like that. Only as they get to know each other are they able to appreciate one another and you can see the sexual tension build and become more.

Initially, I said I admired how Sarah Morgan wove the loss that both Eva and Lucas had to deal with but she did it in a classy way. I mean this from a standpoint that while we hear about their loss and see both of them working through it, it never overtook the story.

I’m no expert, but I’ve read many books and I think its a fine line for a backstory to not overtake the actual present story that the characters are living in. For anyone who has dealt with loss, the holidays are always challenging. Especially in terms of someone you were exceptionally close to. It can feel like everything reminds you of that person and it can make even the simplest tasks heartbreaking.

Another aspect I respected is that as we see Eva and Lucas progress through the story, their own love story shows values that I usually see associated with Christmas. Kindness, forgiveness, understanding, charity, blessings. I think with the bustle of everyday life, we sometimes forget these things but then as the holidays come around, these themes come back in. I loved seeing the author incorporate those themes into Eva and Lucas’ own love story.

This book comes out November 29th, 2016 and I would absolutely recommend getting it. Eva and Lucas had such a great love story, and it encompassed everything that I could have wished for in any love story, much less a Christmas love story.